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No candidate garnered the required 75 percent of the roughly 600 voters to gain a spot in Cooperstown in results that were announced Wednesday afternoon. Craig Biggio (68.2 percent) and Jack Morris (67.7 percent) had the highest vote totals.

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Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mike Piazza were among the names on the ballot for the first time, but none reached the threshold. Many voters struggled with how to reconcile the eye-popping statistics of Bonds, Clemens, et al., with the stain of the steroids era.

Since 1965, there were only two instances of voters not electing a new Hall of Famer, in 1971 (when Yogi Berra led voting with 67 percent) and 1996 (Phil Niekro had 68 percent).

Voting is done by qualified members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The Boston Globe has six voters—Peter Abraham, Nick Cafardo, Bob Hohler, Dan Shaughnessy, Bob Ryan and Tony Massarotti.